I used to be so die-hard Resto4Life (haha) that I refused to even map my shapeshifting abilities. If I turned into a Bear, it was only to /dance. Fortunately however, PvP has opened my eyes to a whole host of advantages to our various forms, and I’m happy to say that I’m now never more than a thumb movement away from turning into a happy woodland — or underwater — creature. Here are a few of the tricks I’ve learned for each form:

Cat Form

• Prowl + Dash past groups of enemies the rest of your group or raid has to carefully avoid.
• Bravely leap from ledge to ledge on the ramps in Karazhan.
• Dash back to your raid after being the victim of an ability that signficantly displaces you (ex. waterfalls on Morogrim).
• Dash back to your raid (wait for a straightaway like that of Curator’s hall in Karazhan) after a wipe so you can blog — I mean, buff — after a wipe.

Bear Form

• Mob out of control and running to bash your skull in? Turn into a bear and Bash his skull in instead, giving your tank 3 seconds to mosey over and give you a hand. PvP-specced Druids often have the Brutal Impact skill, making this a 4-second stun instead of 3.
• Impending doom from a Gruul Shatter? Pop Barskin and turn into a Bear. You’ll get more hit points and take 20% less damage than you would otherwise.

Aquatic Form

Turning into a seal lets you travel through water faster than everyone else. This is great for getting back to the circular platform that surrounds The Lurker Below in SSC after a Whirl, Geyser, or ill-timed Spout. And does anyone else get really annoyed by the fact that a few random AIR bubbles knock us out of Aquatic Form on our way through the drainpipe to Coilfang Reservoir?

Tree of Life

Use Tree of Life form on Blackheart the Inciter (possibly any mob that charms; I’m not sure) and during the phases where he charms your whole group, you’ll wander around ineffectually slapping your groupmates with your branches.

Flight Form

• Die in an unsafe spot? Click the “Resurrect” button and hit your Flight Form button for a quick getaway!
• One of my favorite things to do in game is to leap off Aldor Terrace, drop halfway down, turn into a bird, glide into the bank, and shift out so that I’m thrown across the room and land beside the mailbox. Sometimes, I even /bow. Not exactly combat-focused, but tremendously entertaining.

All-Terrain Travel Form Macro

Rather than creating and using multiple buttons for your various forms, consider creating a macro that will use Travel Form, Flight Form, Aquatic Form, or your mount based upon your current conditions:

/cast [swimming] Aquatic Form; [flyable,nocombat,noswimming] Swift Flight Form; [noswimming,outdoors,combat] Travel Form;
/use [noswimming,outdoors,nocombat,noflyable] Reins of the Swift Frostsaber

So what special form-based tricks do you use?

Related Posts

• /cancelform to Work like /dismount in Patch 2.3
• Too Sexy for My Bark
• Useful User-Submitted Macros

I hate them. Which is why I haven’t written about them before now. Maybe it’s their non-traditional effects or the fact that many of them are triggered (which means you have to remember to trigger them). Either way, there’s never been a clear best-of-breed pair of trinkets to me. So I collect them and then I put them in the bank, waiting for the day that another Druid blogger will write this article so I can gleefully dust off the pair she’s enthusiastically endorsed. Right now I’d like to take the opportunity to say that the rest of you Restos are slackers for making me do this. I hate trinkets!

The trinkets I’m going to be looking at are the Eye of Gruul, Fel Reaver’s Piston, the Lower City Prayerbook, Essence of the Martyr, Living Root of the Wildheart, the Ribbon of Sacrifice, Bangle of Endless Blessings, Scarab of the Infinite Cycle, the Alchemist’s Stone, the Pendant of the Violet Eye, and the Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon.

Prioritizing

From these summarized values and excluding those trinkets irrelevant to the Druid HoT-based style of healing, I would personally prioritize these trinkets in the following way:

* The differences between these are marginal and largely dependent upon external factors such as cast speed. Use your best judgment.

Without a doubt, the Bangle comes out on top. It simply blows all the others away. I was shocked to discover this, especially considering that it’s a blue item from a non-Heroic instance. A significant portion of its value comes from its use in conjunction with Innervate, so if you aren’t already doing this … well, I can’t believe you’re reading Resto4Life and not already doing this! I’m strongly considering a follow-up piece to this one that looks at the Bangle in more depth .. and I suspect I may not have a choice in the matter once the incredulous comments start.

Math

Because not everyone likes math, I’ve separated it out from the comparison portion. Here are some of the fundamentals used to determine the values of these trinkets:

Proc to Restore Mana

The formula to determine the MP5 value of an item that procs a mana restore a certain % of the time is as follows:

MP5 = 5 * (mana restored / (cast frequency/proc rate))

This formula can be applied to the [Eye of Gruul] and applied toward the 415 mana cost of a Rejuvenation when in caster form:

MP5 = 5 * (415 / (2/0.02)) = 20.75

Proc Duration for Items without an Internal Cooldown

The formula to determine the proc duration (in %time) for an item without an internal cooldown is as follows:

t% = 1 – (1 – proc rate)^(duration of buff/casting frequency)

We can apply this formula to the [Living Root of the Wild Heart] (3% proc rate with a proc duration of 15 seconds). This works out to (1 – (1 – 0.03)^(15/2) or 20% of the time, assuming a cast rate of 2.0 seconds. At a cast rate of 3.0 seconds, it drops to 14.1% of the time.

Applying this formula to the [Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon] (2% chance with a proc duration of 15 seconds), we find that the buff should be active (1 – (1 – 0.02)^15/2) or 14% of the time at a cast rate of 2.0 seconds. At a cast rate of 3.0 seconds, this buff should be active 9.6% of the time. I found the additional 70% mana regeneration provided by the Dragon card when the proc was up (100% – 30% from Intensity) and discarded the at least 5.56% of the time you’d be likely to be under the effects of an Innervate. I then graphed the contribution of the Dragon Card to your mana regeneration at values of Spirit ranging from 300-700:

Proc Frequency for Items with an Internal Cooldown

The formula to determine the proc rate (measured in PPM) for an item with an internal cooldown is as follows:

PPM = 60 / ((casting frequency/proc rate) + internal cooldown)

We can apply this formula to the [Bangle of Endless Blessings]. With a 10% proc rate and 45 second internal cooldown, the Bangle would have an average PPM of 60 / ((2/0.1) + 45) or 0.92 PPM, assuming a cast rate of 2.0 seconds. At a cast rate of 3.0 seconds, the PPM would drop to 0.8 PPM. So that we can reuse the method used to determine the MP5 value at varying levels of Spirit for the Blue Dragon, we need to convert PPM into the percent of time that the buff will be active. This formula is simply:

%t = (duration * PPM) / 60

With a 15 second duration and cast frequency of 2.0 seconds, the percent time this buff will be active is 23%. With a casting time of 3.0 seconds, 20%. As with the Blue Dragon, the proc is worthless to us while under the effects of Innervate, so we have to exclude its benefits by multiplying what it gives by (1 – 20/360) or 94%. Graphed against values of Spirit ranging from 300-700:

Of course, the world would be too simple a place if this were the only component involved in determining the value of the Bangle. We also have to take into consideration its on use effect, twice without Innervate and once with Innervate. Luckily, this calculation isn’t too heinous since it’s a flat Spirit bonus of 130 for 15 seconds (149.5 if you have Living Spirit). We can determine the value of a tick of Spirit-based mana regeneration with the following formula:

MP5_Spirit = SPI/4.5 * 5/2

We then multiply this value by 4 since there are 4 ticks in 20 seconds:

Mana Return = MP5_Spirit * 4

And then multiply it again by 0.3 due to Intensity and given the nature of Lifebloom:

Mana Return_{in combat} = Mana Return * 0.3

So if we plug in 130 for the value of Spirit, we get 86.7 total mana back when used. With Living Spirit, we’d get 99.7 mana back each use. In a six minute period, we’ll include two of those uses and then a third use in conjunction with Innervate:

Mana Return_Innervate = SPI/4.5 * 5/2 * 4 * 500%

Without Living Spirit this comes out to an additional 1444.4 mana. With Living Spirit, it’s worth 1661.1. To determine the MP5 afforded by this trinket’s on use effect we consider 2 instances of it without Innervate plus one instance of it with then divide the total additional mana return by the number of ticks in 6 minutes:

MP5_{w/o Living Spirit} = (86.7 + 86.7 + 1444.4) / (6*60/5) = 22.5 MP5

MP5_{w/ Living Spirit} = (99.7 + 99.7 + 1661.1) / (6*60/5) = 25.8 MP5

Since the two components rely upon cast frequency, your Spirit total, and Living Spirit, we end up with a range of possible values.

Valuing the [Alchemist's Stone]

Using the analysis from MP5 vs. Intellect and assuming a fight length of 8 minutes and the 10% bonus from Blessing of Kings, 15 Intellect converts to 2.58 MP5. Applying the analysis from MP5 vs. Spirit and assuming Blessing of Kings, Living Spirit, Innervate, and 80% of the time in FSR, the 15 Spirit converts approximately to 6.67 MP5. The MP5 value from stats alone is therefore 6.67 + 2.58 or 9.25 MP5. The MP5 value of its potion augmenting effect will depend upon the type of potion used but can be determined as:

MP5_{Potion Increase} = Avg. Additional Mana Returned/Ticks in 2 Min

Therefore, the additional MP5 contribution for various mana potions will be:

• [Major Dreamless Sleep Potion]: 1440/24 = 60 MP5
• [Fel Mana Potion]: 1280/24 = 53.3 MP5
• [Super Mana Potion]: 960/24 = 40 MP5
• [Mad Alchemist Potion]: 880/24 = 33.3 MP5

By summing the MP5 value of its stats and the MP5 increase for various potions, we arrive at the following values:

• [Major Dreamless Sleep Potion]: 9.25 + 60 = 69.25
• [Fel Mana Potion]: 9.25 + 53.3 = 62.55
• [Super Mana Potion]: 9.25 + 40 = 49.25 MP5
• [Mad Alchemist Potion]: 9.25 + 33.3 = 42.6 MP5

Valuing the [Pendant of the Violet Eye]

As with the Alchemist’s Stone, we can convert the 40 Intellect on this item into MP5. Assuming a fight length of 8 minutes and the 10% bonus from Blessing of Kings, 40 Intellect converts to 6.88 MP5. Since the mana regeneration afforded by each application of the buff within 20 seconds increases in a linear fashion, we can determine the likely number of applications (based on cast frequency) and use the average mana regeneration between the first and last applications:

Avg. MP5 = ((duration/cast frequency) * 21 MP5) / 2

At a cast frequency of once every 2 seconds, the average MP5 value of this trinket while the buff is active would be 105 MP5. At a cast frequency of once every 3 seconds, this value is 70 MP5. If used every cooldown, it is active for 20 seconds out of every 2 minutes or 16.7% of the time. Multiplying this percentage by the MP5 values gives an MP5 of 17.5 with a cast frequency of 2.0 and 11.7 with a cast frequency of 3.0. Adding the MP5 equivalent of its passive +40 Intellect, we arrive at a final value of 24.38 at 2.0 and 18.58 at 3.0.

Related Posts

• Getting More out of Innervate
• Omen of Clarity
• Revaluing Spirit

For an additional perspective on Mana Management, check out that of Bellwether from 4Haelz! She looks at talents — both Balance and Restoration — additional trinkets not listed here, and group dynamics that can aid your Mana recovery.

One of the design quirks for Restoration Druids is a heavy emphasis on Spirit. This dependence dates back to the days when the once-defining Restoration ability, Innervate, was a 31-point talent. Multiplying its recipient’s out of combat, Spirit-based Mana regeneration by 500%, it has always been best given to a high Spirit spellcaster. With the release of the Burning Crusade, the Tree of Life was introduced, converting 25% of the Druid’s Spirit directly into a +Healing received aura for her groupmates. Living Spirit, a 3/3 talent on the same tier as our Tree of Life form, gives an additional 15% bonus to total Spirit. Like Priests, Druids have a 3-point talent that allows a portion of our Spirit-based Mana regeneration to continue while in combat. Prior to 2.2, this regeneration percentage was only 15%, but has since been increased to 30%, making Spirit an even more attractive stat relative to MP5 for a Restoration Druid. And perhaps one of the most telling changes to our class came when our caster forms’ Spirit-based Mana regeneration formula was adjusted from its previous value of SPI/5 + 15 to SPI/4.5 + 15. And while Priests continue to have the stronger base regeneration formula (SPI/4 + 15), a Druid who specs for the 15% bonus from Living Spirit can close this gap considerably.

So why then do I refer to this heavy emphasis on Spirit as a design “quirk”? Primarily because, unlike Priests, a Druid cannot reasonably expect to take advantage of time spent outside the Five Second Rule. Our HoT-based style of healing — a style which first became effective with the release of the Burning Crusade and the introduction of Lifebloom — dictates that we be casting at least once every six seconds to maximize effectiveness and healing output. And if maintaining a Lifebloom stack on more than one target, you cannot expect to be outside the Five Second Rule at any time. Fortunately, there are a number of techniques and items that can be employed to assist with Mana management.

Potions

Perhaps the most intuitive and readily-available means of restoring Mana is through the consumption of Mana potions, sticky-sweet blue (or green) alchemical concoctions. Use the following guidelines when filling your bags before a raid:

• Bring a combination of at least 12-15 [Super Mana Potions] and [Fel Mana Potions]. Fel Mana Potions are best leveraged as your final potion for longer fights. (Why?)
• Bring a few “baby” Mana potions, potions which are the equivalent of [Major Mana Potions]. These come in several easily-obtainable varieties, including the [Unstable Mana Potion] and [Major Combat Mana Potion]. These are perfect for fights where you need a little extra push toward the end but using a larger, more expensive Super or Fel Mana Potion would be overkill (overheal?). They’re also good to use early on in fights where you don’t anticipate needing to use a larger mana potion (but would still have the option to do so two minutes later).
• Are there any zone-specific Mana potions for this raid? These potions are generally cheaper than those purchased off the Auction House. These include the [Cenarion Mana Salve] (SSC and other Coilfang instances) and [Bottled Nethergon Energy] (Tempest Keep). Ask a Mana-using raidmate if you aren’t sure.
• Will there be one or more “breaks” during the encounter lasting 12 seconds or more? If so, you might consider the use of a [Major Dreamless Sleep Potion]. While these share a cooldown with other Mana Potions, they return more than any other type (3600). They do, however, take you out of the fight for 12 seconds, and it’s important that your dispellers know not to remove the Magic debuff that’s caused by imbibing one, lest your potions be on cooldown and you not receive the full return. Some examples of fights where you might consider the use of a Dreamless Sleep Potion are Curator evocations and between Tidewalker earthquakes.
• If you are an alchemist, consider wearing the craftable [Alchemist's Stone] trinket on any fight where you expect to be chain-chugging potions. This trinket will cause all the restorative potions you consume to restore 40% more Mana than they would have otherwise.
• Alchemists can also craft the [Mad Alchemist Potion]. While the average mana return on these is lower than that of a Super Mana Potion, the components for creating them are much less expensive, and they have a chance to grant you a random elixir buff upon consumption.
• On fights where you anticipate taking damage as well as needing a mana restore, consider downing a [Super Rejuvenation Potion]. These boysenberry-flavored draughts restore as much mana on average as the Mad Alchemist Potion (and thus, a little less on average than Super Mana Potions) but include an average health restore of 2200. As the average mana difference between a Super Mana Potion and a Super Rejuvenation is 200 and a Lifebloom costs around 220, Super Rejuvenation Potions are best leveraged when you can’t afford the GCD of a Lifebloom cast on yourself or if you cannot afford to wait for the health restore over time.

When possible, consume a potion as soon as you are missing the maximum Mana that can possibly be restored by that potion. It can be helpful to use a unitframes addon (such as Pitbull) that can be configured to display the value of Mana missing.

Flasks and Elixirs

In addition to Mana Potions that directly restore Mana, there are a variety of consumable elixirs and flasks that provide other regenerative benefits:

• [Elixir of Major Mageblood]: Grants 16 MP5 and lasts for one hour. This is a Guardian Elixir and can be used in conjunction with an [Elixir of Healing Power].
• [Flask of Mighty Restoration]: For the truly discerning raider, a Flask of Mighty Restoration provides 25 MP5, last two hours, and persists through death. Flasks cannot be used in combination with Guardian or Battle Elixirs, so you can’t use both a FoR and an Elixir of Major Mageblood.

Innervate

Once our spec-definining ability, Innervate is now available to Druids of all talent specs. It remains, however, of greatest benefit to a Restoration Druid since our Balance brethren tend to focus more heavily upon Intellect (I won’t even begin to delve into the politics of trying to pry an Innervate out of the [Grasp of the Moonkin], however). As a Druid, you should be aware of how much Mana will be restored by Innervate under various raid conditions (Blessing of Kings, Divine Spirit), so that you can leverage it in the same way as a potion, using it as soon as you are able to do so without wasting any of the Mana restored. (Because you can continue casting while under the effects of Innervate, you can use it a little before you’re missing the total Mana it will restore). On longer fights, using your Innervate as early as possible will often allow you to use it twice. Netherspite is one example of such a fight.

While the Mana regeneration afforded by Innervate is nice enough on its own, there are a couple of additional techniques that can be utilized to maximize your return, including an automated weapon swap to a high-Spirit weapon and the activation of the on-use effect of the [Bangle of Endless Blessings]. These techniques are detailed in my earlier article on Getting More out of Innervate.

When to share?

Depending on your guild’s policies on such things, it’s not entirely uncommon to hear “Can I get an Innervate?” over voice chat. If you look around and notice that you are the only Druid in the raid, it’s possible that the person is talking to you. So when do you share? Well, first of all if it’s a Paladin or a Shaman, it’s time to hit your self-Innervate macro so you can truthfully respond, “Oh sorry, it’s down.” If it’s a Holy Priest, it’s time to employ some discretion. Things to keep in mind when making the judgment call:

• Is the person making the request responsibily consuming Mana potions? You should not have to subsidize someone else’s unwillingness to use consumables. Help those who help themselves.
• Is the person making the request ordinarily a meaningful contributor? Less of an issue in progression-based guilds where dead weight is cut away with regularity, in a casual raiding guild, it isn’t uncommon to receive Innervate requests from healers performing at 60% of your throughput.
• Bonus points for the person requesting if you know they run an addon such as Evocation2 that will automatically perform a Spirit-based weapon swap, ensuring they get more out of your Innervate.
• Remember that a Restoration-specced Druid with 3/3 Living Spirit derives close to the same benefit from Innervate as does a Holy Priest. Many Priests aren’t aware of this and may subsequently feel a sense of entitlement to your Innervate. Remember that as a Restoration Druid, you are equally deserving of your Innervate.

In my experience, Shadow Priests are often self-conscious about requesting an Innervate since they’re aware they aren’t among the “Mana essential” healers. However, they frequently serve as Mana batteries for the raid’s healers, and so it’s a good idea to watch their Mana yourself, volunteering an Innervate when possible (or better yet, a Feral raidmate’s Innervate) to ensure that their groupmates continue benefitting from Vampiric Embrace.

As you may have guessed, I’m pretty selfish about sharing my Innervate. To do so requires holding down CTRL and the middle mouse button while panning the camera in and out. Then I have to spin around in my chair three times while reciting the EULA backwards and in Latin. A dialog window then pops up to confirm that I really, actually want to give my Innervate to [Target]. Two possible choices are displayed: “NO” and “HELL NO.” I have to click in between these two buttons on a secret “MAYBE” button. When this happened (the one time), a zone-wide announcement was made (with my blog address, of course) in addition to /rsay, /gsay, and /say. Every decision to give Innervate to a raidmate is one calculated to ensure our raid’s success.

Prioritizing Potions vs. Innervate

Because both can be used early on to ensure their respective cooldowns are available sooner, it’s important to correctly prioritize the use of each. In general, on fights lasting eight or more minutes, use Innervate as soon as it’s possible to do so without wasting any of the Mana returned. For fights that are close to the 8-minute mark, it’s okay to use it a little earlier even if a bit of Mana is wasted if it means that you will have it available to you again near the end of the fight. In any case where you Innervate before consuming a Mana potion, watch your Mana total closely so that you can drink a potion as soon as you can. On shorter (but Mana-intensive) fights, use a potion first since there is little chance of being able to use a second Innervate.

Enchants and Gems

Regemming and enchanting gear is a great (if somewhat expensive) way to shuffle around your stats if you find yourself needing more Mana regeneration on a semi-permanent basis. While far from a complete list, here are a couple that I recommend:

• Metagems: In addition to passively granting 12 Intellect, the [Insightful Earthstorm Diamond] has a chance to proc a 300 Mana restore on every cast. According to user-submitted information on WoWHead, it’s worth up to 20 MP5 (assuming you are chain casting Lifebloom with little to no latency). Considering a Restoration Druid’s other PvE-oriented meta gem options ([Bracing Earthstorm Diamond]), it’s a great choice for a healer who often finds herself strapped for Mana. Similar to the Insightful Earthstorm Diamond, the Tier 4 2-piece set bonus has a chance to proc a 120 Mana restore on every “helpful” spellcast. With no internal cooldown, an approximate 5% spell cast, this set bonus would yield an additional 36 MP5 assuming that you were casting Lifebloom every 2 seconds.
• Weapon Enchant: The Spellsurge weapon enchant represents approximately 8 MP5 (assuming 1 PPM) for your entire group. To obtain this, you opt to forego the 81 +Healing enchant, so it’s not the best of tradeoffs unless you know that multiple group members will be using it (5 group members = 40 MP5 for all). Alternatively, there are some addons that will automatically swap your weapons around once Spellsurge has procced, but that’s another article that needs writing…
• Head-Slot Enchant: The [Glyph of Renewal] can be purchased from Honor Hold/Thrallmar at Revered reputation and affords an additional 7 MP5 as well as granting 35 +Healing.
• Shoulder-slot Enchants from Aldor and Scryers: Players having chosen the Scryer faction gain access to the [Inscription of the Oracle] at Honored reputation and the [Greater Inscription of the Oracle] at Exalted. Aldor members gain access to the less regenerative [Greater Inscription of Faith] at Exalted reputation.

Other Consumables

Of course, no discussion of Mana management would be complete without a look at the various consumable foods and other items that can enhance your Mana regeneration (either directly or through Spirit):

• [Superior Mana Oil]: Crafted by Enchanters (but usable by all), Mana Oil can be applied to your weapon to grant 14 MP5 for one hour. Best of all, this effect persists through death (unless you get killed by a roll of paper towels or a Kleenex).
• [Drums of Restoration]: Available to Leatherworkers, each has 50 charges and affords an additional 25 MP5 to you and your groupmates when used each cooldown. Because these Drums are on a separate timer from Mana potions and affect your group, it’s best to wait until you’ve run through the batch of Mana restored by your first potion. This helps to ensure that the Mana restore is less likely to be wasted since other casters in your group are likely to also be missing Mana.
• Foodstuffs: [Blackened Sporefish] may initially appear to be a better choice than [Golden Fish Sticks] from a purely mana regeneration viewpoint, but the MP5 of Sporefish is roughly equivalent to the mana regeneration from the Spirit afforded by Fish Sticks. Essentially, you’re choosing between 44 +Healing and 20 Stamina.

Other Items

Jewelcrafting Trinket: Talasite Owl

Jewelcrafters have access to the [Talasite Owl], a crafted trinket that affords 14 MP5 passively and can be activated to grant an additional 900 mana over 12 seconds once every five minutes. This works out to be a total of 29 MP5 if used every cooldown ((900/(5*60) * 5) + 14).

Items Granting Mana Regen while Casting

There are several items that allow a portion of your out of combat mana regeneration to continue for a certain period of time, either passively or through a proc from spellcasting:

• [Darkmoon Card: Blue Dragon]
• [Primal Mooncloth]
• [Bangle of Endless Blessings]

You can determine the MP5 value of these items by determining their proc rate (if applicable) and your Spirit-based mana regeneration when outside of the 5SR.

Conclusions

All of these techniques when used together may be overkill. Or they might just free you up to bestow your Innervate on a deserving raidmate (if there is such a thing; personally I think this is just a quaint myth used to scare sapling Restos). But for fights where longevity is key, you can opt into one or more of these methods to ensure you can keep on going when other healers have run bone dry.

Related Posts

• 2.4 Mana Regen: Getting the Most out of Innervate
• Fel Mana Potions
• 2.4 Mana Regen: The Mana Regen Calculator

I’m probably behind the times on this one, but I recently discovered a quick and easy change that I can make to the interface options that has has greatly improved my soloing ability — and one that will likely be a big help when I start PvPing again. This is the Auto Self Cast toggle on the Basic interface options tab. This causes any helpful spell you cast to be cast on you by default should no other target be selected (be it a standard target, a mouseover, a focus target, etc.).

This option, first pointed out to me by frequent reader and commentor, Someone of Some Server (Some Region), eliminates the need for me to use an additional targetting parameter in all of my healing and decursing macros. However, if for any reason that’s more your cup of tea, how to accomplish this using macro commands is demonstrated below.

/cast [target=mouseover,help][target=target,help][target=player] Lifebloom

You could also dress up a macro like this one with a Swiftmend to intuitively “pop” your Rejuvenation when you press down the CTRL key:

#showtooltip /cast [modifier:ctrl,target=mouseover,exists,help][modifier:ctrl,target=target,help][modifier:ctrl,target=player] Swiftmend; [target=mouseover,exists,help][target=target,help][target=player] Rejuvenation

In PvE, this (the interface option or the macro modification) allows me to throw a heal on myself without losing my current DPS target. By DPSing using Moonfire, Insect Swarm, and Thorns and using macros like these for Lifebloom, Rejuvenation, and Swiftmend, I never have to worry about spell pushback, which means I don’t have to worry with casting Entangling Roots unless my target is a particularly heavy hitter. In PvP, this will allow me to easily heal myself while running away from the Skillherald hurtling toward my delicate elven features.

Related Posts

• Debuffing Your Focus Target
• Phae’s e-Fish-ent Macro
• The Belkin Nostromo N52 TE

Vonya from Egotistical Priest wrote a great article on Panic Buttons for Priests which details different strategies for dealing with aggro. A lot of the information can be applied to Druids, and it’s an enjoyable read, so I highly recommend you check it out. Directly inspired by her article, I’d like to take a moment to look at the “Panic Buttons” and techniques available to Restoration Druids when the poop begins to fly. Each option will be listed in order of my preference, but you should use your own judgement and personal experience to determine what the situation calls for.

1. Aggro-Reducing Trinkets

   You should always have one of these items equipped during trash fights. They provide a permanent AOE aggro reduction that’s only slightly weaker than Priest Fade (which is only temporary). This is my favorite option since it causes the least amount of disruption to anyone in the group and should generally send the mob who expressed sudden interest in you to go rocketing back to your tank instead. You can even opt to use these items preemptively if you know you’ve just delivered the megaton Super Duper Healing Touch of Doom +2 for 8k.

   Note: For more detailed information about these items, how they work, and how to get them, take a look at my first article, Fade! Not just for Priests anymore.

2. Barkskin

   For reasons I’ve previously discussed, Barkskin is one of our best defense mechanisms. 20% less damage from Melee, Ranged, and Spells along with no spellcasting delays for 12 seconds? Yes, please. Barkskin is the way to go in most non-heroic dungeons where you can afford a couple of measly 2k hits on your way to return the offender back to your grateful tank.

   Baby … Ruth??

   Don’t count on Barkskin to save you from a Heroic trash mob, though. They’ll chew through your thorny coating to get to your gooey center before they can say “mmmm … gooey center.” In this case and assuming your Trinket is on cooldown from being used earlier in the fight (because you’re running Trinketmenu to make sure one’s available at least once a fight, right?), we’ll have to consider other alternatives.

3. Cyclone, Entanging Roots, or Hibernate

   While the situations that allow for Entangling Roots (outdoors) and Hibernate (non-immune Beasts) are few and far between, these are absolutely great options when they are available as they don’t interfere with your tank’s ability to reclaim the mob (of course, if you could Hibernate you would probably already be doing so as part of the initial crowd control for the pull).

   Cyclone is a little trickier. Because it prevents the mob from being damaged, lasts only a short duration (6 seconds), and further increases your threat, make sure that your tank knows you’re in trouble after you’ve cast it. While he can’t damage the mob to build aggro, he should still be able to use Taunt so that it darts to him and not you once it’s released.

   Also, keep in mind that you can pair Nature’s Swiftness with Cyclone and that three points in Control of Nature gives you 70% resistance to spellcasting delay due to damage (for obvious reasons, this is a popular PvP talent) while casting Cyclone and Entangling Roots.

4. Trust your groupmates.

   I considered whether to rank this option above or below using Cyclone because of the aforementioned drawbacks of Cyclone but eventually decided to rate it below because a self-powered solution is usually better than one where you need to rely on someone else. You should never trust a PUG-mate to know anything more than the basics of their role (DPS/Tanking/CC). But if you know your groupmates very well and trust that they are observant enough to have noticed your plight, you can hope for one of the following forms of assistance:

   • Hunters: Frost Trap or Misdirection. If you’re not sure if your Hunter is paying attention to you specifically, stand behind him. He’ll often put down a trap or Misdirect reactively if he sees a mob break off and head his direction.
   • Mages: A Frost Nova will often root the mob(s) who’ve come after you, giving the tank time to react and come to your aid. This assumes that he has one already Sheeped or that the mob chasing you isn’t humanoid or beast (if it were Beast, you would have just cast Hibernate as in option 3). Be sure to back up from the rooted mobs, or his efforts will come to naught.
   • Boomkin: A Moonkin can freely Cyclone a mob without increasing your threat, buying you time for your tank to take notice and come running with a Taunt.
   • Rogue: A good Rogue will use Blind to disorient the target for 10 seconds. (A good Rogue is one who considers more than the buttcrack of the mob in front of him in the hopes of winning the DPS race.)
   • Paladins: A Blessing of Protection will protect you from physical damage for 10 seconds.

   The list could go on. The point is, the more aware your groupmates are of their surroundings and the more comfortable they are with their own crowd control/protection abilities (however shortlived they might be), the higher chance you have of surviving when something goes wrong and your tank loses aggro. It’s not a bad idea to have a macro that announces you’re in peril, but voice chat is even better. Just make sure you are clear and concise and try not to squeak (much). Because after all, they need to know if you die, they die.

5. Grin and Bear it.

   I list this option as a last resort both because you’re likely to be wearing quite a bit of cloth in PvE and because it effectively crowd controls you, preventing you from healing other group members who might also be in trouble. At the very least, try to refresh your HoTs on the main tank before retreating to the relative safety of Bear Form (don’t forget that you can use Barkskin before shifting to Bear). And once you’re a Bear, don’t ignore the new tools at your disposal (at least map them to your action bars, people – gosh). You can Bash the mob if it isn’t immune to stuns, stunning it for 3 seconds. Or pop Frenzied Regeneration for some yummy, rage-fed healing over time (that is not affected by your +Healing). It’s times like these that 5 points in Furor can be a big help.

   Note: I don’t recommend using Cat Form with Cower. It locks you out of your other defensive abilities (including healing) while providing no additional defenses. Cower is also only a targetted threat reduction. Let’s leave the cowering to the real kitties, shall we?

So next time things go horribly wrong, keep your head (firmly attached to your shoulders) by employing one or more of the above strategies. After all, the ability to function under pressure is what separates good healers from great healers.

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